With an updated mining bucket range and a new dedicated bucket facility in Australia, Austin is cementing itself as global leader in bucket design, engineering, and manufacture.
Integrating Australian bucket manufacturer, Mainetec, into the business, Austin now has one of the largest bucket ranges on the market, offering cutting edge, lightweight buckets with faster loading and more payload delivery for its mining customers.
Complementing Mainetec’s operations in Queensland, on Australia’s East Coast, Austin has transformed its Perth facility on Australia’s West Coast into a large, dedicated bucket specialist centre. The centre is the largest bucket build and rebuild facility in Western Australia, servicing Austin’s long term mining clients.
With Austin’s key manufacturing facility in Batam, Indonesia also able to assist with bucket manufacture, Austin has the capacity and capability to design, manufacture and deliver to customers on time anywhere in the world.
The increased capacity and interest in the new product range has driven bucket sales to record levels, with Austin now producing and delivering more than three times the buckets per month than it was per year back in 2021. Austin has also invested in initiatives to reduce manufacturing and rebuild turnaround times to support operational efficiencies on customer mine sites.
Austin’s engineering team draws on more than forty years of bucket engineering experience and investment in design to create customised buckets. From High Performance (HP) lightweight buckets through to heavy-duty armoured buckets, Austin can custom engineer buckets to suit any application.
Austin’s engineering teams deliver full customisation for payload, wear and ground conditions including use of any type of customer preferred GET system and proprietary wear blocks with high wear facings.
Austin’s customers can also access precise information on the condition of their trays and buckets through Austin’s Mainetrack asset management software. Following an initial input of equipment data, customers can easily retrieve information about equipment wear through the Mainetrack app.
The system will show wear over time and, importantly, predicts when equipment will hit pre-set wear limits so customers can schedule rebuilds or replacements.
Austin will also send product support teams to site for operation and servicing support for Mainetrack software.
Austin’s dipper buckets are fitted with the latest version of the company’s iTrip proprietary door latching and control system. Already widely used in Australia, iTrip dramatically reduces maintenance intervals and increases the service life of the components. The system has proven to increase the standard dipper service life between overhauls by up to 18 months.
In addition, Austin provides its customers with a dedicated portal, allowing clients to track the progress and delivery of their new buckets, trays and rebuilds, providing assurance and confidence to operational teams.
International aspirations
With Australia as its bucket design hub, and supported by Austin’s global operations, Austin can send buckets to clients anywhere in the world. Austin builds and rebuild dipper buckets in Australia (Mainetec), Indonesia, Chile, and the USA.
A dipper bucket for a USA-based customer is already under construction in Batam and due for delivery in August 2024. The ability to export its own-designed and manufactured buckets globally has positioned Austin as a market leader, with increased market opportunities emerging across the
USA and South America.
“Our mining buckets are delivering efficiencies for our mining clients in Australia and now around the globe, and they’re becoming a very important part of our business. We’ve created a bucket centre of excellence in Australia, building on our forty years of design and experience to deliver the highest quality buckets on the market.”